Hey everyone!
First post on here, but already I need to say thanks to the community for the wonderful info available here. Hopefully I picked the right subForum to post in!
I grew up with an in-ground (two different pools), so not completely unaware of pool maintenance and such. This is the first pool I am solely responsible for. I wanted to get it done as inexpensively as possible, while being safe and reliable. The idea is to get the fam hooked on having a pool, then installing an in-ground.
First, I chose a location. Because I was going to be setting it up myself, I wanted as little labor as possible so I chose a spot that had adequate sunlight and was as flat as I can find. There are some gradual slopes on our small property so balancing view by neighbors/front of the house, grade, and sunlight was key. Fairly happy with the location but do wish I could have had more sun in the later afternoon. That will certainly influence the in-ground location.
I marked a 23' diameter circle out and started cutting sod. By hand. In July in the Northeast. 90*. Not a great time. Luckily, the local guy I had called about sand came by and took pity on me, offered to use his skid steer to level a spot real quick. Took him about 20 mins. Then he dumped and roughly leveled the sand for me. I then began leveling the pavers that the legs would sit on.
Once leveled, I installed the pool itself. It is a 22ft x 52in round Coleman from Walmart. I got a great deal on it, and despite all the negativity I have seen about these types of pools, the quality surprised me. It took a while to get it right, and I tried to take my time and get it right. Made a small patio (still needs leveling) to help with the ladder. If I will say anything negative about the pool, the ladder IS pretty bad, as everyone knows. I plan to replace it. Here's the pool filling the first time.
I knew I wanted to add a skimmer, so I bought the Hayward 5in square skimmer and installed it. Decided to hard plumb the entire thing while I was at it, so it would facilitate the installation of a big sand filter next year. That was a bit of a process. Let me know if anyone has any questions on anything.
First post on here, but already I need to say thanks to the community for the wonderful info available here. Hopefully I picked the right subForum to post in!
I grew up with an in-ground (two different pools), so not completely unaware of pool maintenance and such. This is the first pool I am solely responsible for. I wanted to get it done as inexpensively as possible, while being safe and reliable. The idea is to get the fam hooked on having a pool, then installing an in-ground.
First, I chose a location. Because I was going to be setting it up myself, I wanted as little labor as possible so I chose a spot that had adequate sunlight and was as flat as I can find. There are some gradual slopes on our small property so balancing view by neighbors/front of the house, grade, and sunlight was key. Fairly happy with the location but do wish I could have had more sun in the later afternoon. That will certainly influence the in-ground location.
I marked a 23' diameter circle out and started cutting sod. By hand. In July in the Northeast. 90*. Not a great time. Luckily, the local guy I had called about sand came by and took pity on me, offered to use his skid steer to level a spot real quick. Took him about 20 mins. Then he dumped and roughly leveled the sand for me. I then began leveling the pavers that the legs would sit on.
Once leveled, I installed the pool itself. It is a 22ft x 52in round Coleman from Walmart. I got a great deal on it, and despite all the negativity I have seen about these types of pools, the quality surprised me. It took a while to get it right, and I tried to take my time and get it right. Made a small patio (still needs leveling) to help with the ladder. If I will say anything negative about the pool, the ladder IS pretty bad, as everyone knows. I plan to replace it. Here's the pool filling the first time.
I knew I wanted to add a skimmer, so I bought the Hayward 5in square skimmer and installed it. Decided to hard plumb the entire thing while I was at it, so it would facilitate the installation of a big sand filter next year. That was a bit of a process. Let me know if anyone has any questions on anything.
Nice work! 
Maybe post more pics of your new skimmer and hard plumbing job for other AGP owners to see. Everyone loves to see upgrades. 
